To achieve greater performance from roller skates, quad and in-line, and ice skates, skate designers and manufacturers continue to search for designs and manufacturing techniques to improve the handling, maneuverability, support, comfort, and durability which a skate can offer.
Early prior art skates were manufactured by first fabricating a conventional shoe or boot to receive the foot of the user and then attaching wheels or blades to the shoe or boot by the use of a separate truck assembly or blade mount. However, it was found that for many applications, such as in-line roller skating, sufficient support was not provided by conventional shoe or boot assemblies. For in-line roller skates to provide both maneuverability and high speed operation, it is desirable that the skate be maintained in a substantially vertical position, and a high degree of support must be provided to the ankles of the skater.
Rigid injection molded boots which had previously been used for skiing, were adapted for in-line roller skating applications. These rigid boots generally include a plastic outer shell which forms the boot upper portion combined with a soft inner liner to provide comfort to the skater. To eliminate unwanted forward or rearward stiffness and rigidity, such boots have normally included a pivoted ankle support cuff at the back of the boot above a heel supporting section thereof. An example of a prior art injection molded boot with a pivoted heel cuff is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,614 to A. M. Malewicz. Although the pivoted ankle cuff alleviates, to some extent, unwanted forward and rearward stiffness in a skating boot, the boot is completely rigid in a lateral direction.
In an attempt to provide enhanced support for an in-line skate while maintaining the comfort of a conventional soft shoe or boot, Roller Derby Skate Corporation of Litchfield, Ill., in the late 1980's, designed and sold an in-line roller skate under the trademark DRY ICE. This in-line roller skate included a soft, pliable, breathable shoe having a rigid base secured to a skate truck assembly. At the back of the shoe, extending around the heel and ankle portion, was a more rigid plastic heel and ankle counter which was bonded to the shoe.
To eliminate the necessity of providing a separate, pivotal ankle cuff with an attendant pivoting mechanism in a molded skate boot, a unitary molded skate boot has been designed with a system of slits in the heel and ankle area to provide for flexure in the forward and rearward direction. A boot of this type is shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,462,295 to E. Seltzer. This slitted boot assembly includes a flat hinge section extending between slits at the front and rear of the boot, and sometimes, after prolonged use, continued flexure can cause crazing of the plastic in this hinge section.
Recently, in an attempt to eliminate the disadvantages of the rigid, injection molded skate boots, there has been a return to the concept of combining a soft shoe or boot attached to a skate truck with a rigid or semirigid heel counter. Once such structure, shown by U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,466 to A. A. Meibock et al. includes a pivoted ankle cuff attached to the heel counter in the manner provided in previously designed injection molded skate boots. This boot is provided with a canting adjustment mechanism to allow the ankle support cuff to be canted laterally relative to the remainder of the boot.
Another development has been to increase the rigidity of softer, more comfortable skate boots by designing a plastic ankle and heel counter insert which can be positioned between the various layers which make up the skate boot. Such inserts have a heel counter portion which is generally U shaped and which extends around the heel area and along both sides thereof. An integral ankle support extends upwardly from the heel counter portion and includes forwardly projecting portions which extend around both sides of the ankle area. Such a one piece plastic ankle and heel counter insert is shown by International Patent Application No. PCT/CA94/000661 to BT Hoshizaki et al. While this one piece insert provides improved rigidity in the heel and ankle portions of the skate boot, it can inhibit to some extent rearward and lateral movement of a skater's ankle.